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Luca Francesconi studied piano at the Conservatory of Milan and composition with Azio Corghi, Karlheinz Stockhausen (in Rome), Luciano Berio (at Tanglewood) and jazz in Boston.
He also worked as an assistant of Berio beetwen 1981 and 1984.
In 1990 he founded Agon Acustica Informatica Musica, a center for production and musical research with new technologies based in Milan, which he led untill 2006.
Among the many prizes and international awards he has received are the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis (Darmstadt 1990), the Förderpreis der Ernst-von-Siemens-Musikstiftung (Munich 1994) and the Prix Italia for Ballata del rovescio del mondo, a radio-opera with texts by Umberto Fiori (1994).
Many important international institutions have programmed concerts dedicated exclusively to his music. He has so far written over seventy works for very different forces (ranging from soloist, large orchestra and opera to multimedia), most of these commissioned by leading musical institutions and radio corporations.
He’s written five Radio-Operas for RAI Corporation and six stage or open air operas, frequently using multimedia technologies like the video-opera Striàz ( with Studio Azzurro video makers) and LIPS, EYES BANG for performer and ensemble with realtime audio and video transformations, commissioned by Nieuw Ensemble and STEIM Amsterdam.
His electronic and vocal music includes Etymo, after Baudelaire: for soprano, chamber orchestra and electronics ( IRCAM/ Ens. Intercontemporain); two solos with real time electronics ( Animus I for trombone and Animus II for viola) commissioned by Ircam, and Animus III for tuba and computer commissioned by musiKfabrik and ZKM Karlsruhe; Sirene/Gespenster: a pagan oratorio for four female choirs, percussion, brass and electronics produced by WDR, ASKO Ensemble and IRCAM.
The wind music includes two quintets (Attesa and Accordo), an octet (Aria) a Gabrieli transcription and an instrumental suite from Monteverdi’s Orfeo commissioned by Nederlandse Blazers Ensemble,a sax concerto, two huge works for five moving windbands (Mittel and Fresco) and two oboe concertos ( the 2nd commissioned by Xenakis Ensemble for Ernst Rombout). He has also written several works for large orchestra among which: Wanderer for La Scala Philarmonic Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti and Cobalt, Scarlet premiered by the Oslo Philarmonic under Marek Janowsky (both regularly performed by major world orchestras like the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Israel Philarmonic, San Francisco Symphony under Roberto Abbado, Gothenborg Symphoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony, RAI Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony and others).
He has written so far four String Quartets regularly performed by Arditti Quartet and two violin concertos for Irvine Arditti : Riti Neurali ( CD Auvidis Disques Montaigne with 3rd String Quartet and other works) and Body Electric ( with live electronics).
Choral music includes Terre del rimorso for soloists, chorus and orchestra ( texts from Ernesto De
Martino, Eurypide’s Bacchae and folk chants), composed for the Festival Musica Strasbourg 2001 (commande d’etat of the french state) and premiered with the SudDeutscherRundFunk Orchestra and Choir conducted by Eötvös, Let me Bleed for the New London Chamber Choir, both released on CD by Stradivarius and Seashell for the Swedish Radio Choir.
Works premiered in 2002 are Buffa Opera (original text by Stefano Benni ) under the direction of the composer with Antonio Albanese as a protagonist, commissioned and produced by the Piccolo Teatro of Milan; and the opera Ballata (‘96-’99) on a libretto by Umberto Fiori (after Coleridge The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner), commissioned by the Théâtre de la Monnaie of Brussels conducted by Kazushi Ono and directed by Achim Freyer. In 2004 the Holland Festival commissioned Gesualdo Considered as a Murderer, an opera composed for Nederlandse Blazers Ensemble and Hilliard Quartet, to a text by Vittorio Sermonti and directed by Giorgio Barberio Corsetti.
The year 2004 also saw the premiere of Rest (2003) “Luciano Berio in memoriam” for cello and orchestra commissioned by the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, written for the soloist Anssi Karttunen and conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste.This piece together with Cobalt Scarlet has also been released on CD by Stradivarius with RAI National Orchestra under the baton of Roberto Abbado.
Recent works include Kubrick’s Bone for cimbalom and ensemble for Luigi Gaggero and Hard Pace, a new trumpet concerto that is premiered in 2008 by Hakan Hardenberger and S.Cecilia Orchestra under Tony Pappano as part of the Pollini Project in Rome. This work is co-commissioned by Vara Matinée at ConcertGebouw, Gotheborg Symphoniker, MITO Festival Torino/Milano, Bergen Philarmonic.
A new opera is planned for Aix-en-Provence Festival 2009, conceived around the voice of Magdalena Kozena. Another theatre piece will be premiered in 2010, based on Heiner Muller’s Quartet with ASKO and Barbara Hannigan.
Near future commissions include Percussions de Strasbourg, musiKfabrik, Accroche Note, IRCAM, Ensemble Intercontemporain, JeanPierre Robert, Music Across, Oslo Opera
He regularly collaborates with the world’s leading musicians and international orchestras.
He also conducts.
Luca Francesconi has been teaching for 25 years both in italian conservatory and in masterclasses all over the world.
At present he is professor and head of the department of composition at the Musikhögskolan of Malmö in Sweden.
He is the Artistic Director of BIENNALE Venice.
